California Dreamin'

We're baaaaaack!

Holy moly we just had the best time ever!  Sunshine + crazy amounts of friend time + yummy food in mass quantities that I didn't have to cook + Happiest Place on Earth = Heaven on earth.  It was seriously amazing.

We started out on Friday afternoon heading down I-5 for way too many hours.  We ended up stopping over in Sacramento (since we're too old to be driving through the night these days.  I don't care how good the book on cd is...it's not keepin' this Mama awake anymore!) in a cheap hotel and caught a few winks of sleep.  Then we were back on the road!  Our kids are such road warriors.  They amaze me with their bladder capacity and road-longevity.  My kids rock.

Saturday afternoon found us at the Delmore's house.  YAY!!!  We spent a couple nights relaxing, chatting, and eating.  It was fabulous.  We love Ryan Delmore's music.  In fact, Ryan and his daughter Kate wrote a song together that inspired the name "Wide Awake".  You can listen to it here.  I love that song and can't go too many days without listening to it.  :)  They are just great people.  Sarah Delmore and I are basically the same person, so of course we got along tremendously well.  Ha!  Kindred spirits indeed.  Thank you Delmores!  We miss you already!

Sweet Kate.  Our girls fell in love!

Monday evening we got to meet with my high school friend James.  It was AWESOME.  James and I were pals back in the day, and now he pastors a church in Pasadena.  A couple months ago James let us know that he'd been following our story and was interested in learning how he could support us on journey.  Oh my word, we were blown away by his faith and encouragement.  James, you have no idea how much we needed to hear the words you spoke to us.  Our faith is built, our hopes are high, and we are encouraged up the wazoo.  Thank you so much for your friendship and support.  I loved seeing you again!

James!

Tuesday we got to meet Mark Fields, the Director of Vineyard Missions.  We go to a Vineyard church and are being sent out as missionaries from our church, so it was really cool to chat with Mark.  We aren't sure how we'll fit into Vineyard Missions as a whole, since it's primarily been all church-planting in the past.  We're excited to see what God has in store!!

Next up....Disneyland!!!!!
What can I say?  I love Disneyland.  I love everything about it.  What made it even better, was that some of our dearest friends ever joined us for our time at Disney.  Disney with friends brings a whole new level of fun to things.  The giggling quota was met each day by about 9:00am.  We shared many laughs, many screams, many waits in line, and many smiles.  It was F-U-N.  With the combo of fast passes and rider swaps, the three big kids got to ride each big ride approximately 9 times.  Holy Pukeville Batman.  They have guts of steel.  Now, prepare for picture overload...
 

After weeks of wanting to "hug Mickey" Seth decided "He's too big!"

BUT, he was definitely willing to hug the Princesses!  :)  He was so proud of his Sleeping Beauty autograph.

 

 

Waiting for the parade

Passed out after a day of Disney

 

Jed working on perfecting his Splash Mountain pose

  

Aaaah...perfect!

Killing time while the big kids went on Space Mountain

My favorite picture of our time  :)   So much happiness!

 Our trip ended with a fantastic time spent with our friend Rick.  He took us out to lunch and loved on us.  It was the perfect ending to the perfect trip.  Thank you Rick!!

Thus ends our amazing gift of a vacation.  We are so thankful.  It was a huge blessing to our family.  

Now back to tackling post-Disney laundry...  :)